Operation Get Out of its Own Way

[PKFIRE]

I've been messing with my Wastegate. The 1st day I took the car out I got 14psi out of it. I tightened and I was at 18psi. I tightened it some more yesterday and now I'm at 22. I was bit scared to get on it today. I wanted make sure I got the car home in one piece until I saw an Audi S5 take an entrance ramp fast. I decided to also without thinking but 22 is probably ok. The new turbo doesn't spool as fast but it pulls harder up in the rev range. I'm hoping to get it to hold 25 psi. I'm hoping the motor will hold too.

[draggin50]

Probably getting close to finding out the limits of the little engine! I bet it's fun though!

[PKFIRE]

23 psi 1st gear and 24 psi 2nd gear tonight. Not sure where 3rd gear will be at. I want to turn it up more but I think I need to make some passes first before I destroy the thing. Who knows maybe it will be just fine with a bit more boost.

[draggin50]

Haha only one way to find out!!

[NXcoupe]

Cool project! You ever watch videos of the gold brick on youtube? That thing was flying. I'd like to see your car make a pass. I think your project is pretty cool.

[PKFIRE]

Thanks! The motor just keeps chugging. I've beat on this thing since 1997 and ran it low on oil plenty of times in its life. The motor keeps surprising me,lol. I really need to get another bottom end just incase. I do want to run 13.2 or better with this block before I replace it though.

Yeah, he made into the 9s this year over 140 mph with a dohc 2.3 liter redblock and a th400 transmission.

[PKFIRE]

Ok it's to 25 psi now. I had to add another clamp to hold another vac hose to the intake. Once it popped off it took away my fun. Well there's always tomorrow. I wish I had time Friday to run it.

[PKFIRE]

COMPRESSOR SPECS:T04S housing flow: 61 lbs/min 781cfm .70 A/R housing 60 TRIM wheel TURBINE SPECS:T3 .63 A/R housing HIGH FLOW 76 TRIM stg 3 wheel

I have an opportunity to run this Garrett turbo, I'm not sure if it's worth it because my head flows so low. I'm not 100% sure. I could probably run this on my cobra and be more than happy.

[PKFIRE]

I pulled about 200lbs out of the car. I knew the seats were heavy but 45 lbs for a single bucket seat is a ton. I wish I could take out the driver seat. I may have to put weight back in if the one rear tire starts spinning. I do have lighter front wheels but I should replace the tires before I race with them.

[NXcoupe]

Wow that's heavy. Mustang seats are similar tho. They are very heavy. I bought an LX hatch yesterday to get the engine out of it for mine. I'm going to toss bearings and maybe rings in it for the time being. I think it will take 20 psi eventually without an issue. I will need 60 lb injectors at that point tho.

[PKFIRE]

Blowing smoke rings and spraying antifreeze on my first pass. I think I blew the head gasket. I'll post as soon as I find out.

[redfirepearlgt]

Sorry to hear that Joe, was looking to see it make a low 13 pass. I saw the white smoke coming out of the exhaust and wondered if it lost something. Hope you can get it back together cheap enough.

[PKFIRE]

I talked to my wife last night and realized I have two new head gaskets sitting in my garage and enough upper gaskets for a top end rebuild. This maybe a cheep fix.

[PKFIRE]

Tore the head off today. It was just a blown head gasket. I'll put it back together this week. I'll post pictures later.

[PKFIRE]

I pulled the spark plugs one by one front to back and after pulling the second one I was surprised how clean they were. I was getting bit nervous that maybe I did lock the motor up but the last plug was cover in antifreeze and the spark plug opening started draining antifreeze out of it. That was at 11am today.



So after a buddy helped push my car in the garage I pulled the head off. Took about 30 minutes. I found the bad gasket. I'll just replace it probably this week. My 1/8 Mile speed went up 3 mph but that's probably the same time this happen because I think it went on top of second. My brother said timing usually pops head gaskets. I'm wondering if this is my issue and I need to take some timing out of it.

[redfirepearlgt]

good news Joe. Glad it was that easy for ya. Hope to see that thing go 12's soon.

[PKFIRE]

good news Joe. Glad it was that easy for ya. Hope to see that thing go 12's soon.

Thanks Chad, I'm going to fix it and probably try again in August or September. I've been wanting to put a stereo system back into it. I keep putting it off to get it faster. I really just want to just drive it and I spend so much time tinkering with it I really should focus on exercising and watching tv a bit more, haha.

[NXcoupe]

Do you have a wideband on it? Wonder if you are running out of fuel, going lean? Pull 2 degrees out if you can.

[redfirepearlgt]

Thanks Chad, I'm going to fix it and probably try again in August or September. I've been wanting to put a stereo system back into it. I keep putting it off to get it faster. I really just want to just drive it and I spend so much time tinkering with it I really should focus on exercising and watching tv a bit more, haha.

I thought watching tv was exercizing.

[PKFIRE]

Haha, tv is the only thing missing from my desk body workout!

I started checking the motor further today. I found that none of my rods are bent. The stroke is right at 80mm which is stock. I cleaned my head and inspected it further. It has pitting around where the firing ring is. I'm going to have it resurfaced and I contacted the person who burnt me a ekz timing chip. I asked him to take a couple degrees out. Mid 13s isn't bad for a older car that ran 18s. I'm going to keep it here for now and maybe in future do a v8 swap.